1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides a support stand, which can support an optical axis of an exposure machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Presently, subsidiary machines of high-energy exposure machines such as light source generators are mostly placed separately with operating machines such as steppers and scanners in semiconductor foundries to prevent operators or machines from being hurt or influenced by heat, particles, noise, vibration and high-energy radiation generated by the light source generators. Furthermore, operating machines must be placed in the clean room to prevent particles from polluting products and reducing production yields. However, it is very expensive to construct a clean room. To keep space for more operating machines, light source generators of exposure machines and operating machines are mostly placed on different floors and then the cost of foundries is reduced. In addition, there are not only optical axes and transferring lens between light source generators and operating machines located on different floors, but also some other transferring pipelines. Optical axes, transferring lens, and other transferring pipelines will overlap. So a support stand is needed for the application of exposure machines to support optical axes between light source generators of exposure machines and operating machines and to fix and place electric wires and other transferring pipelines of the machines themselves.
Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of layout of an exposure machine according to the prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, the light source generator 110 and the operating machine 120 are placed on the first floor 130 and the second floor 131 respectively. The light source generator generates exposure light sources such as laser beams, transfers them to the operating machine 120 by an optical axis 140 and lens (not shown), and then supplies enough exposure energy for the operating machine 120. Between the light source generator 110 located on the first floor 130 and the operating machine 120 located on the second floor 131, there is not only an optical axis 140, but also many electric wires 150,151 of machines and some other transferring pipelines (not shown). In the prior art, structures to support exposure machines may use a support board 160 and a plurality of coupling mechanisms 161,162 to support, fix and place an optical axis 140, electric wires 150,151 of machines and other transferring pipelines.
However, the support board 160 and a plurality of coupling mechanisms 161,162 are usually set in place after the factory has been constructed completely. There are some other transferring pipelines that will influence the support board 160 between the floor the light source generator 110 is located on and the floor the operating machine 120 is located on. Therefore, in the prior art there are some drawbacks such as poor results for support structures and difficulty of installation. Some vibration from outside effects such as earthquakes, human touching, and construction can easily make support structures shift and twist, and then influence the location of the optical axis 140 and lens. This will cause exposure light source going through the operating machine to have a phenomenon of axes shifts and poor intensity and uniformity of the exposure light source, and thereby influence the critical dimension and the throughput of semiconductor product.